


Undying

by vindicatedtruth (orphan_account)



Category: American Idol RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-29
Updated: 2016-07-29
Packaged: 2018-07-27 12:08:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7617517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/vindicatedtruth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Archie believes that even stars will burn out someday.</p><p>Cook proves him wrong.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Undying

**Author's Note:**

> This is a very, _very_ old drabble that somehow got buried, and I've completely forgotten all about it--until now, as I was looking through my old files.
> 
> Makes me wonder if there are more stories I've forgotten to unearth, like this one.

 

“Cook…” Archie spreads his arms to encompass the incredulity of what he is seeing. “What’s all this?”

He closes the door behind him as he steps onto the rooftop of Cook’s apartment, feeling beneath his feet the familiar vibrations of Cook’s electric guitar, emanating from the amplifier settled and plugged in the middle. The man himself is behind a mic stand, strumming and humming along to the first verse of a song.

A very familiar song.

Archie suddenly feels like he can’t breathe.

Cook looks up and catches Archie’s dazed gaze. He tilts his head towards the other mic stand that was facing away from him.

“You…” Archie swallows. “You want me to sing?”

The corners of Cook’s mouth lift warily into a smile that doesn’t reach his eyes. It makes Archie’s chest clench painfully, because he knows the song intimately.

It’s his own song. His own words.

(His own heart.)

And he can’t sing it now.

“Why are you doing this?” Archie whispers. “Why did you even invite me here?”

Cook holds his gaze steadily. “Because I want to make a bet with you.”

Archie stares. “What?”

Cook steps closer to the mic. The speaker amplifies his rumbling voice, and Archie feels it reverberating down to the marrow of his bones.

“I’m going to sing along with you,” Cook declares, “but it’s going to be a song that’s entirely the opposite of what you’ll be singing.”

Despite the length of time he has known the man, Archie still can’t understand the way Cook’s mind works. “Okay?” he says dubiously. “And… what’s the bet?”

Cook is right in front of him now, with only the microphones standing between them—and _why_ , Archie wonders all of a sudden, did Cook set it up so that they’d be singing _face-to-face_?

“The first one to stop singing—” says Cook, and Archie can’t help his sharp intake of breath at the wild, manic glint in Cook’s eyes: “— _loses_.”

Archie’s eyebrows furrow and he opens his mouth to say more, but Cook forestalls his protests by strumming hard on the guitar, making Archie jump.

 _“_ Sing for me, Archie,” Cook says lowly into the mic, making Archie shiver. “ _Please.”_

Archie closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, willing himself to be strong enough. Because this… this is _Cook_ , and Archie can never refuse him.

So even though his chest is squeezing the air out of his lungs, even though he thoroughly wishes the words of his own song aren’t true…

Even though he fervently wants to forget that it’s _Cook_ he’s leaving behind…

With everything that’s left of his breaking heart, Archie sings:

 

 

_The world is turning  
_ _And time keeps on lingering on  
_ _The sun will be burning  
_ _Eventually you will be gone_

 

He falters when Cook suddenly changes the pacing of his guitar’s rhythm and answers Archie’s song with one of his own.

Archie’s eyes widen at Cook’s passionate response:

 

**If the sun stops burning  
** **And the world stops turning  
** **I’ll be right here with you**

 

Cook eyes are boring into him, _through_ him, making Archie feel like Cook is _stripping_ him, flaying him raw, peeling back the layers of rigidly constructed masks to unearth his most carefully buried secret.

Archie is unravelling at the seams, and he finds it impossible to tear his gaze away as he finally spills the words of his heart:

 

_I’ll always love you  
_ _Oh, believe it or not  
_ _Baby, that’s not enough to  
_ _Not enough to stop these  
_ _Falling stars over your head  
_ _They’ve been bound to burn out, burn out_

 

Something in Cook’s face crumples then, as if he has just taken a punch to the gut by Archie’s words. And in catching that rare, split second moment of vulnerability as Cook lets his guard down, Archie desperately wants to tell him the truth, the _real_ reason why he has written that song. 

Stars _will_ burn out. It’s a fact that Archie knows, a fact that Archie has held onto all these years to stop himself from dreaming, from wishing, from _hoping_ —from believing in something that seems too good to be true. 

Something too good for _him._

 _Stars_ will _burn out_ , Archie reminds himself fiercely.

Cook catches the conflict in Archie’s eyes, and resolutely steels his own:

 

**I can see the way you hide  
** **All the things you keep inside  
** **But all you ever wanted was the light to save you  
** **We could run away somehow  
** **Take the night and tear it down  
** **Never let the stars burn out and fall to pieces**

 

Cook moves his foot toward a switch he has set up on the floor and flicks it. 

And Archie gasps.

All around him, meters and meters of fairy lights that Cook has set up on the rooftop light up one by one. Cook’s face is illuminated, and this time, the smile there is soft and genuine.

Archie feels his throat tighten. Stars _will_ burn out. Cook knows this too. So he takes them out of the sky and into his own hands… and _recreates them._

Cook has done the impossible, and has surrounded Archie with _undying stars._

 

******And if the sky keeps falling  
** **And the night keeps calling  
** **I’ll be right here with you  
** **I’m on your side**

 

The wretched hope blooms in Archie’s heart, and he makes one final bid to keep it at bay:

 

_When it’s all said and done  
_ _I’ll just be a speck in the galaxy  
_ _Floating far away by gravity  
_ _Tell me it’s not possible that we could break_

They aren’t supposed to acknowledge this unnamed gravity pulling them toward each other, with neither of them willing to move backward or forward, stuck in the no man’s island in between: _less than lovers, more than friends._

 

_When you forget me  
_ _When you don’t remember my name  
_ _Not even a memory  
_ _Somewhere in the back of your brain  
_ _I won’t be offended  
_ _‘Cause I always knew that the day will come  
_ _When I’m not enough to make you stay_

 

But now Cook has broken this unspoken rule of theirs, and Archie doesn’t know what to do.

 

**And times will always change  
** **The wings will always break  
** **And I will be here waiting over time  
** **Forever by your side  
** **Our love will never die**

 

Cook’s voice cracks on that last line, but Archie doesn’t see his expression. His vision is too blurry, his cheeks are too wet, his shoulders are shaking.

“I lose,” Archie whispers, and it’s a surrender. 

He will always surrender to Cook, because it’s the only way he’s saved.

 

 


End file.
